Delhiites Get Big Relief From Traffic Snarls, PM Modi Inaugurates Pragati Maidan Tunnel, Six Underpasses

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the main tunnel and underpasses of Pragati Maidan Integrated Transit Corridor Project in New Delhi on Sunday.

With the inauguration of the 1.6-km-long tunnel, which is Delhi’s first, commuters will now be able to avoid traffic snarls at ITO, Mathura Road and Bhairon Marg while travelling to India Gate and other central Delhi areas from east Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad.

Speaking after inaugurating the tunnel and underpasses, PM Modi said that the Pragati Maidan Integrated Transit Corridor “will ensure ease of living by helping save time and cost of commuters in a big way”.

PM Modi said that the project had to undergo several obstacles including Covid, adding, “And then there’s no dearth of people in our country who knock on Judiciary’s door, disrupt the process of such projects but we made it through”.

“Not much ‘Pragati’ of Pragati Maidan which was formed decades ago to showcase Indian tradition…It was left off…There was a development plan on paper. (Then govt) made announcements in fashion to make it to newspaper headlines & then got busy,” PM Modi said at the launch of the ITPO tunnel.

The Pragati Maidan Integrated Transit Corridor project has been built at a cost of more than Rs 920 crore and funded entirely by the central government, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had said in a statement.

It is aimed at providing hassle-free and smooth access to the new world-class exhibition and convention centre being developed at Pragati Maidan, thereby facilitating easy participation of exhibitors and visitors in the programmes being held at Pragati Maidan, it said.

Public Works Department (PWD) officials had said that once the tunnel is operational, motorists travelling from Noida, Ghaziabad and east Delhi areas will have signal-free access to India Gate, Supreme Court, Mathura Road and vice-versa. The tunnel starts near the National Sports Complex of India (NSCI) at the Purana Qila Road and passes underneath the redeveloped Pragati Maidan to culminate at the Ring Road near the Pragati Power station.

“It will be Delhi’s first tunnel in which traffic will move. It is equipped with the latest technologies such as a digital control room with the facility of a public announcement system inside the tunnel. “To allay fears of waterlogging, we have constructed seven underground sumps to collect and drain storm water automatically,” a PWD official told .

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